Recent Exploration for Petroleum in the United Kingdom

During the summer and winter of 1918 eleven standard rigs were erected inthe United Kingdom to test the petroleum prospects of ten structures, eight ofwhich were in England and two in Scotland. By the fall of 1921 ten of the wellswere completed; the remaining one, the D'Arcy in Scotland, was stopped somemonths later. The tests were deep ones, five of the wells being 4000 ft. ormore, the rest varying in depth between 1810 and 3918 ft. The total footagedrilled was 40,047 ft. The holes were put down with standard or cable toolspurchased in the United States (except the boilers). The larger sizes ofcasing, 10-in. and above, were also from America, while the smaller sizes weresecured in Scotland. The Hardstoft well in England found a small production of high-grade oil andthe D'Arcy well also encountered what is reported as a favorable showing at adepth of 1810 ft. The Werrington and West Calder wells had to be abandoned onaccount of drilling difficulties. The Apedale well encountered greatthicknesses of ash in the Carboniferous and had to be abandoned on account ofdepth. The results might be summarized by saying that of the ten structuresdrilled upon, two yielded encouraging showings; three cannot be considered ashaving been adequately tested; and five produced dry holes, although in some ofthese small oil showings and gas were met. The total cost of the work amounted to about half a million pounds sterling, which sum includes the cost of all equipment, subsequently sold by thegovernment. The work, under the superintendence of V. L. Conaghan, took placefor the most part in the period immediately following the war - a period ofhigh prices, labor and transportation difficulties, and unsettled conditionsgenerally; factors tending to retard the work and affect the costs. AIME 070–56